Animals We Care About

Category: Charitable Businesses

Utilizing his expertise in global financial markets as well as advances in technology, Raj Fernando started his career as a volunteer while he attended college.

While working at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange during and after graduating from Beloit College he climbed the corporate ladder following years of various trading positions.

Fernando’s twenty five years of experience in the international finance markets also takes in founding Chopper Trading in 2002, a Chicago-based proprietary trading firm which he grew to more than 250 employees with offices not only in Chicago but also in New York, London, San Francisco, Washington, DC and Munich. Fernando sold the company to DRW Trading Group last year.

His work at Chopper Trading varied from planning, putting services into operation and administering risk management to buying and selling as well as keeping an eye on the financial industry’s source code safety measures.

Earlier this year Fernando launched an Internet startup, Scoutahead.com, he developed as a platform for both individuals and companies to acquire confidential information and reviews from the people they trust. Fernando functions as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

In addition to his business proficiency, Fernando’s philanthropy efforts encompass the Brookings Institute’s Foreign Policy Leadership Committee, the American Security Project and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He has also been a contributor to Wounded Warriors and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago.

His generosity also extends to political contributions to Democratic candidates, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and he serves on the Board for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Board for PAWS Chicago.

Despite the American dominance in the information technology sector, recent news mostly focuses on IT skills of individuals from developing countries. The rising competition from other countries also means that IT staffing firms in America must find innovative solutions for recruiting talent, which is needed to fuel the growing appetite of the tech-savvy American consumers. Luckily, it seems that leaders of American IT firms are aware of the changing patterns. For instance, Diversant, is among the leading IT staffing firms in the nation that are focusing on putting the emphasis back on the American workforce.

Diversant is a New Jersey based IT staffing firm that is also known as the largest African-American owned company in its industry. Besides, it is also a certified minority owned business. Both these distinctions mean that the leadership at Diversant actively focus on the diversity in the American workforce. By fostering diversity, the IT staffing firm ensures that almost all high-level American firms are able to find talented IT individuals for their projects.

While it may seem that Diversant only helps minorities, legal immigrants with IT skills and professionals with rare qualifications, nothing can be farther from the truth. In fact, Diversant continues to help Americans from all facades of life to pursue their dreams. For instance, the STAR program helps U.S. veterans get entry-level IT training at an accredited facility and the opportunity to work onsite for some of our Fortune 500 clients. Besides, there are a number of other initiatives in the planning phase.

Perhaps, such innovation comes naturally to Diversant as its leadership team is known for its vision. Its Principal, John Goullet is a shining example of innovation as he is the former head of Info Technologies, which became one of the top to fastest growing firms in the nations in only five years. Acknowledging his vision, the current CEO of Diversant, Gene Waddy, merged his company with Goullet’s Info Technologies, in 2010.

While Skout is known as a dating application, it is putting its infrastructure and ability to network to good use by donating food to help 20,000 people from facing hunger. The company is not able to do this on its own, but it has the drive to work with the community of San Francisco, which is why it recently partnered with SF-Marin Food Bank in order to bring the money to these 20,000 people.

So first, some people might wonder why it is focusing on San Francisco out of all the other cities in the country (and in the world). Well, it actually is rather obvious as the company is based out of San Francisco. So, it just wants to give back to the community it is based out of. With the homeless population San Francisco on the higher end of the spectrum (at least in California), Skout decided to put the money it has raised through its app development to good use.

The managers at Skout pointed out that it would be very important to feed those in need, mainly because people while making the same amount of money they might have made a few years ago, the cost of living is higher than ever before (with San Francisco remaining one of the most expensive cities not just in the United States but the entire world).

This is not the first time Skout has helped raise funds to feed those in need throughout San Francisco and Marin. In 2015, the company did a similar donation drive, only this time for the National Grilled Cheese Day. In all, the company managed to serve 10,000 people at the participating Food Banks. With the idea of doubling this number for 2016, the company is very thrilled with the turnout.